Diet



The remains of a female H. illatus. I found her
in my house July 30, 2022, when I had been
active with a blacklight in the backyard trying
to attract bugs. She had a crack in her pronotum,
but she was still alive. I put her in a tank with
another male and female H. illatus. On Monday
morning, I found one of the other beetles eating
her remains; I didn't get a photo of that but
this is a picture of what was left. I've put the
remains back in the tank in hopes they'll come
back so I can get a picture. I don't know if she died before they started eating her or if she was just incapacitated.

A screenshot from a video. When I put the dead beetle back in the tank and they came back immediately to eat more. 

A female H. illatus eating a crushed boiled
corn kernel.

Inspired by their enthusiasm for dead insects, I started feeding them freshly killed mealworms. They seem to like this food a lot. The pair of adult beetles would go through 2-3 mealworms a week, which is a lot of food for their size.




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